While the turtles are away
by SeptimusMagistos
Summary: A short, fluffy one-shot about Cody and Starlee.


I do not own Teenage Mutant Ninja Tutles. If I did, Starlee would be in every episode.

Starlee rang the doorbell and hummed a little tune while waiting for the answer. She was in a good mood. The sun was shining, a sound recorder hidden somewhere was playing an audio file of birds chirping, and she was going to see Cody about something very special.

The door slid open to reveal Serling.

"Ah, miss Hambrath. Master Cody has been expecting you. Please come in."

Starlee pushed forward, rolling inside. As always, she was wearing her roller skates. They were convenient for getting around quickly. Also, they made her feel taller.

A short while later she entered Cody's penthouse. As always, her eyes traveled casually over Ninja Turtle memorabilia in Cody's collection. Having actually met the turtles she could understand why Cody found them so fascinating, though in her opinion this was still going a bit overboard. Then again until recently Cody didn't have much else to do.

Cody himself chose this moment to enter the room. He smiled at the sight of Starlee. She looked really excited.

"Uh, hi, Starlee." he greeted.

"Hey, Cody." some time ago she had decided to just drop the 'boss' business. Sure, technically she worked for him. Well, more accurately she worked for someone who worked for someone who worked for someone who worked for someone who worked for someone who reported to Cody's uncle, who was managing the company for him. But she didn't like to think of it that way. It put way too many 'someones' between her and Cody. Anyway, they were good enough friends that she felt it was okay to be informal with him. Since he never voiced an objection, she just treated him more like a friend than an employer-most of the time.

"So…what's in the bag?" he asked the obvious question.

"What else-tools. Now show it to me. You promised."

"Okay, okay."

Cody led her into the lab, where he removed a white tarp to reveal the Turtle-X, a tech-armor of his own design. Starlee expressed an interest in it and had been asking for days to see it. So when the guys went off somewhere to bond as brothers or something, he called Starlee and asked her if she wanted to come over. She got to his house in record time.

"Awesome!" Starlee breathed out. She rolled over and ran her fingers along the surface of the armor. It was very smooth, hard, and cold. She experimentally rapped her knuckle against it and it produced a satisfying sound. "You really built this out of an old servitron?"

"Yeah." Cody answered. He was cheered by Starlee's enthusiasm. Somehow he wanted to impress her. "It wasn't all that complicated, really. I mean, all the basic structure is still there-I just added some upgrades. Optimized movement and coordination, rocket jets, a pilot cabin and the controls to replace the central processing unit, then a smaller one to do the autopilot…"

"In other words you pretty much changed everything except for the basic husk." Starlee interrupted.

"Well…I guess you could put it that way." Cody answered, putting his hand behind his head in a nervous motion.

"That's seriously impressive." Starlee commented, examining the arm joints. It was, too. It took some serious robotics know-how to be able to do anything this advanced. She wasn't even sure she knew some of what went into making this robot. She was itching to take a closer look. "Do you mind if we open it up?"

"Of course not." answered Cody. He knew he didn't have to worry about Starlee breaking anything.

For the next hour or so they played around with the armor's insides, looked at charts and talked non-stop. Once Starlee got familiar with the structure, she had some ideas for improvements. That's not to say she was better at this sort of thing than Cody overall-some of the things he put in just amazed her because she would have never thought of them. It's just that their brains complemented each other.

Starlee snuck another look at Cody. He really was very smart. Starlee had five times the brain capacity of an average human male, but when it came to Cody they were probably tied neck and neck. And on top of that he was really brave and kind. Cute too.

At last they were done. They closed the last panel back up and Cody pulled the tarp over the Turtle-X again. They agreed to work on it together sometime later-like maybe next week. Cody briefly considered getting Don involved, but something about the way Starlee looked stretched out under the robot strongly suggested to him that it might be better if he just let the turtles sit this one out.

"Anything else you want to do?" Cody asked. Starlee momentarily creased her head in thought. Then she grinned widely. Cody could almost see a light bulb flashing into existence above her head. Which was odd, since light bulbs haven't been used in decades-not even the fluorescent kind.

"You do still owe me a lunch date." she answered.

"Oh, yeah. Well, I am kind of hungry…" he played along.

And so it was that about fifteen minutes later the two of them were in the Levelex Mall food court. It was the size of a small town and featured over fifteen thousand eating establishments. The eating area was large enough to have its own escalators and even elevators. Cody was quite lost but Starlee quickly navigated her way to one of the better fast food places which had a short line. They each ordered their meal at the counter. Cody picked up the tab, naturally. There are many rules of social engagements. One of them states that if one and only one of the people involved in a given social engagements happens to be ridiculously rich, they get to pay for everything. After picking up their trays they walked over to an open table. Anyway, Cody walked over. Starlee skated over at a speed that matched his walking. She really was quite good at getting around.

As they sat down Cody glanced at Starlee. He really did like her a lot. And he had a lot of evidence that made him suspect she felt the same. Take the last time they came to Levelex, for instance. Unless draping yourself over people's arms happened to be a custom on her planet (which it wasn't. He looked it up for that very reason) she had made her feelings pretty clear. He briefly wondered whether a lunch date counted as a real date. And if so, then did that mean they were on their second date? Or was this one still the first, just interrupted by a long period of time? Did it even matter? He shrugged and took a sip of his drink.

"Hey, this is really good!" he announced, surprised. It _was_ really good. Better than he'd expect.

"So is this!" responded Starlee, who got a different flavor. Before she had a chance to really think about it, she extended her drink to Cody, the gesture urging him to try it. He in turn extended his drink to her. They were each on their second sip before they realized what they were doing, blushed furiously, and withdrew. For a minute or so they just stared at the table, not wanting to meet each other's eyes for fear of starting a whole new bout of blushing.

"Well, anyway, it's a really good drink." said Starlee finally. Cody grinned and they resumed their conversation from before. The rest of lunch went by without further incident, though the two teenagers kept sneaking looks at each other when they thought the other wasn't looking and often ended up blushing when it turns out the other was in fact looking back. But even after lunch was done neither one of them really wanted to part just yet. So for a minute they just stood there trying to think up an excuse to hang around each other for a little while longer. They didn't need one, of course, but they weren't quite brave enough to actually think that way. This time it was Cody who came up with an activity. He carefully suggested to Starlee that as long as they were there, they might as well catch a virtual movie. The alien girl was only too quick to acquiesce.

With Starlee as their navigator the pair made it to a movie theater within minutes. It was quite different from the sort of movie theater that existed in the early twenty-first century. For instance, you wouldn't find popcorn there anymore. Or a screen. But other things were still the same-for instance the theater was filled with small seats and kept dark. For a while the virtual movies experimented with luxurious chairs and normal illumination, but that led to a drastic drop in attendance as couples went looking for other dark places where they could sit close to each other. So the setups were hastily converted back and kept that way ever since.

After a discussion lasting all of five seconds Cody and Starlee ended up seeing one of the summer hits. An action movie. Or a comedy. Maybe a romance film. They wouldn't know-neither of them was paying much attention to the movie. When their eyes did stray onto the holo-projection, it was mostly because they were looking straight ahead, staring blankly into space while letting their imaginations run wild.

At last Starlee couldn't stand it anymore. She decided it was time to make an actual move. So she closed her eyes and leaned in to give Cody a kiss on the cheek. But, as luck would have it, he chose that very moment to turn around to catch another peek at her face lit up by the movie. Thus it was that instead of brushing Cody's cheek, Starlee's lips ended up pressed against his.

The confusion lasted for several seconds. The kiss lasted a good deal longer than that. When it was over they pulled away, Cody's face red, Starlee's dark purple. Eventually Cody recovered enough to speak.

"Am I going to get in trouble for dating an intern?" he asked weakly.

"Nope. There is nothing in the company charter that explicitly forbids it." Starlee answered.

"How do you know?"

"I looked it up."

"Why?"

"Uh…no reason." Starlee responded, blushing even darker. After a second Cody realized what reason Starlee might have had for checking on that particular matter, and his blush increased as well. Nevertheless he had enough courage left in him to put his arm around Starlee. They just enjoyed each other's company until the movie was over.

Unfortunately, it was getting late. Cody insisted on giving Starlee a ride home. As he dropped her off, they shared one last eye-lock, their gazes filled with love.

"So…see you soon?" Cody asked.

"Yes. _Really_ soon." Starlee answered. It couldn't be too soon for either one of them.

And as Cody rode off and Starlee went inside, their thoughts were filled with each other.


End file.
